NASHVILLE – The N.C. State football team will undoubtedly look a lot different, especially on offense, when new coach Dave Doeren takes over next season.

Until then, the Wolfpack will stick to a familiar game plan for its Music City Bowl matchup against Vanderbilt on Monday.

“I wasn’t going to re-invent the wheel,” said offensive coordinator Dana Bible, who has been serving as State’s interim coach since his former boss Tom O’Brien was dismissed following the final game of the regular season. “There’s been a blueprint for six years and it’s been successful, and we’re following the blueprint.”

It’s a philosophy that has helped produce three straight winning seasons and taken State to bowls in four of the last five years while delivering memorable wins against top teams such as of Florida State, Clemson and West Virginia.

Those victories, however, were tempered by just as many inexplicable losses.

Bible

Although that inconsistency ultimately cost O’Brien his job, the Wolfpack’s problems were usually the result of poor execution rather than faulty strategy – which is why Bible and the remaining staff have decided to stay the course for their one final game together.

They don’t have much margin for error against a Vanderbilt team that comes into the bowl with a six-game winning streak and a 5-3 record in the nation’s most competitive college football conference.

In many ways, Monday’s game at LP Field is similar to State’s season opener at the Georgia Dome against another SEC team from Tennessee.

Things didn't go well for State the last time it played an SEC team from Tennessee

In that game, quarterback Mike Glennon was intercepted four times and sacked in the end zone for a safety while David Amerson, Earl Wolff and a secondary that was the ACC’s best in 2011 was torched for 333 yards and numerous big plays in a 35-21 loss to the Volunteers.

Vanderbilt has the potential to produce a similar result. At the same time State, has proven it can play with and beat teams of the Commodores’ ability and better.

All it has to do is give Glennon time to throw by protecting him up front and running the ball effectively with emerging star Shadrach Thornton. Defensively, the Wolfpack needs to put pressure on Vanderbilt quarterback Jordan Rodgers to keep him from picking apart a secondary that has had its problems at times this season.

There will likely be a few tweaks to the formula of a pro style offense and blitzing 4-3 defense, as there usually at bowl time. But for the Wolfpack, as it has been all season, the key to success is more about the execution than the game plan.